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Although Rocky Produce has expanded and distributes to retailers in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, South and Ontario, the family firm maintains its roots near the shores of Lake St. Clair in Detroit’s produce district.
The story is repeated across the border as retailers still walk the wholesale produce market in Toronto.
“Our retail customers typically want to see and feel the fresh products that they are buying from us,” says Hutch Morton, director
of compliance and business development at J.E. Russell Produce in Toronto. “Here at the Ontario Food Terminal, customers have a lot of options across the 22 wholesalers operating here, so meeting the buyer at the right price with the right product is the best way for us to build our business.”
This close contact with the wholesalers and their produce serves to ensure quality, espe- cially freshness.
“In produce, ultimately freshness and quality will win the day,” says Morton. “We
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN VENA
receive new product from around the world seven days a week, and that helps make us a destination for retailers looking to provide the very best to customers.”
For many, the market may be reminiscent of more congenial times, but it also makes the buying and selling of produce extremely competitive.
“If they are buying at the market,” says D’Arrigo, “they are shopping the whole market.”
The advantages of being able to look over fresh produce at the market is appealing, even to some of the biggest retailers.
“Some of the large supermarkets are coming back to the market; one came by yesterday saying they were thinking of coming back,” says Francisco Clouthier, owner of Maui Fresh International, Los Angeles. “The large markets thought they were saving money, but sometimes it’s just leading to more costs. There’s a lot of walk up at the market. That’s why we’re still down here.”
Although the wholesale market takes produce back to the days when personal contacts mattered more than today, this insti- tution, too, is changing with the times.
“Ten years ago, a lot of the growers sold off the ranch or sold through cooperatives,” says Carcione. “Today, very seldom do you buy from the farmer himself. You’re doing business with the shippers.”
The institution, that began as a meeting of city dwellers and farmers who brought their wares by horse-drawn wagons to locations such as between the Capitol and the White House, has gone high-tech.
“The business has changed a lot; all busi- ness has changed a lot,” says Carcione. “The new generation uses their iPhones —texting customers and getting orders ahead of time. People text their orders in. It’s working for us; we have to adapt. I have younger workers who can do the texting.” pb
50 / MARCH 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS